Obama's efforts to undermine the president-elect

The presidential transition hit a new low Wednesday, with President-elect Donald Trump openly criticizing President Obama for bungling U.S. relations with Israel and erecting other “roadblocks” to a smooth transfer of power in Washington.With 24 days to go before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, the president-elect’s frustration with Mr. Obama’s
perceived undermining of his victory, and wide-ranging efforts to tie
the hands of the incoming administration, boiled over in a series of
comments by Mr. Trump on Twitter.“Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks,” Mr. Trump said. “Thought it was going to be a smooth transition — NOT!”The president has been rushing with executive actions to lock in policies that Mr. Trump
isn’t likely to support, such as bans on offshore drilling and a fresh
round of pending sanctions against Russia for cyberattacks that the
administration says were aimed at helping Mr. Trump win the election.The expanded sanctions against Russia are expected to be announced Thursday, and Mr. Obama is promising to launch covert cyberoperations in retaliation.Last week, the administration officially dismantled a dormant legal framework that Mr. Trump could have used for vetting Muslim visitors in the U.S.Mr. Obama also riled Mr. Trump
this week by claiming in an interview that he would have defeated the
Republican in the November election, if only the pesky Constitution had
let him run for a third term. Mr. Trump responded, “NO WAY!”But the move that most alarmed Mr. Trump,
judging from his tweet storm, was the administration’s decision not to
veto a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned Israel for
settlement activity in the West Bank.“We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter. “They used to have a great friend in the U.S., but not anymore.”The move at the United Nations angered the Israeli government, which accused the Obama administration of orchestrating the vote.The
president-elect told Israel on Wednesday, as George W. Bush said in a
different context, that help is on the way. “The beginning of the end
was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)! Stay strong Israel,
January 20th is fast approaching!” Mr. Trump said.Secretary
of State John F. Kerry defended the administration’s actions at the
U.N. in a lengthy speech Wednesday, saying “no American administration
has done more for Israel’s security than Barack Obama‘s.”It was an astonishing public airing of the disagreements between Mr. Trump and Mr. Obama,
who has pledged to do everything possible to create a “smooth and
efficient” transfer of power. Although the two men have spoken by phone
many times since the election, their mutual praise and handshake during a
cordial Oval Office meeting on Nov. 10 now seem distant.White House press secretary Josh Earnest dismissed Mr. Trump’s comments, telling CNBC, “We’ve been ignoring these tweets for a year — why would we start responding now?”Asked by reporters if his transition was proceeding smoothly, Mr. Trump said, “I think very, very smoothly. Very good. You don’t think so?”Speaking to reporters in Florida about U.S. jobs, the president-elect said he spoke with Mr. Obama earlier Wednesday and had “a very nice conversation.”Mr. Trump
has been irritating the White House in ways that go beyond his victory
over the president’s chosen successor, Hillary Clinton. He has expressed
eagerness to unravel some of Mr. Obama’s
most cherished initiatives, including the Affordable Care Act, a global
climate change agreement and a massive free trade deal in the
Asia-Pacific region.The president-elect also disturbed the White
House with his call last week for the U.S. to “greatly strengthen and
expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its
senses regarding nukes.” In response, Mr. Obama on Tuesday hailed the efforts of the U.S. and Japan at “slowing the spread of nuclear weapons” to keep the peace in Asia.During the memorial event at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Mr. Obama also seemed to take aim again at Mr. Trump’s foreign policy plans with one of those “inflammatory” statements.“Even when hatred burns hottest, the tug of tribalism is at its most primal, we must resist the urge to turn inward,” Mr. Obama said. “We must resist the urge to demonize those who are different.”Trump
transition spokesman Sean Spicer said Wednesday that the
president-elect’s tweet about the less-than-smooth transition “speaks
for itself.” But Mr. Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary,
said Mr. Obama and his staff have been “helpful and generous” to the Trump team.As if the transition has become a popularity contest, Obama supporters were gloating on social media Wednesday that the president beat Mr. Trump in a Gallup poll as the “most admired” man of 2016. Of those surveyed, 22 percent chose Mr. Obama, while Mr. Trump came in second with 15 percent. Pope Francis was third.Gallup said it was Mr. Obama’s ninth consecutive win, but the 7 percentage point margin was his narrowest victory yet.In the 70 years that Gallup has asked the question, the incumbent president has won 58 times.Mrs. Clinton was rated as the most admired woman, edging out first lady Michelle Obama.Transition
tensions also flared this week when Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez,
who is running for the chairmanship of the Democratic National
Committee, accused the Trump team of breaking the law by sending
questionnaires to government agencies such as the Energy Department
seeking to identify employees who had worked on climate change.“Those questions have no place in a transition,” Mr. Perez said. “That is illegal.”The
president-elect’s transition team responded that “the transition has a
memorandum of understanding in place with the administration, and we
continue to uphold both of our ends in this agreement.”

Obama's stance on Israel is late and weak. Where has he been for the past eight years and $50 billion?

The Israeli policy of incremental anschluss is political insanity. It is arrogant, in your face, "what you gonna do about it bitch" diplomacy.

It would be better for Israel and everyone else to make a one time settlement based upon the political realities of the present. Religious multi-millennial claims of land rights that were vacated thousands of years ago is fraught with political danger, none ore so than for the US.

I'll wait to see Trump's policy before finding fault in it.

The Neocon destabilization project has been an unmitigated disaster for all parties. It had to stop and has.

I've always wanted to see a transfer of power with one side refusing to give up the nuclear football to the other The refs, much as they would like, can'd get the ball out of the hands of the incumbent. Finally the incumbent side calls the game over and races victoriously for the locker rooms...what happens then ?

‘If you have a trade war with China, by definition — I remember the day something like that would really knock the hell out of the market. But maybe, if you are going to do it, you should get it over with, right?’

We have been in a trade war with China for 25 years and have been losing badly.

Please let me know when the friggin constitution was changed to say the presidential term is now 46 months rather than 48. If the GOP had their way, the term for Democrats would be 3 years or less. They have already delayed a hearing on a new Supreme Court Justice for six months.

And look at NC. The GOP lost so the outgoing governor and the GOP legislature stripped the governor position down to the point where one GOP legislator in excusing the actions said 'Well, the new governor will have a nice new house and a limousine. He should be grateful.' I know it's just a bunch of hicks in NC but still...what friggin hypocrites.

Everything you said about Obama's character is true but that's got jackshit to do with recent actions.

Obama is a narcissist? Good lord, compared to Trump he's a piker in that category. Funny that Trump's non-specific whiny tweet came out at the same time that he came in a poor second to Obama on Gallup's 'Most Admired Man' survey.

Obama taking actions during his last few months. What the hell is he supposed to do, go on some three month victory tour? Silly.

Trump isn't even president yet but he's calling the leader of Taiwan, telling Israel (publicly) to ignore Obama because he will be the new sheriff in town in a few weeks, and calling Sisi in Egypt to influence their actions on the Israel resolution at the UN. You guys complain about our president doing his job, a job he was elected to; yet, you give a pass to a non-president encroaching on US foreign policy a month before he even has the job.

As was pointed out, Trump is unpredictable. We'll have to see what he actually does. However, if his previous words and the actions he took around the latest UN resolution are any indication we can assume he will be Bibi's poodle. Anyone watching the news stories over the last few days coming out of Israel or have watched Bibi and Bennett on TV would have to assume Bibi and the right wing in Israel believes it will be so. Maybe Bibi will loan Trump to Putin once in a while to take on a walk.

Obama on Israel? Kerry busted his ass trying to get things done for 9 months with no result. In his latest address following the UN vote he at least named names, pointed out who and what were the real obstacles to peace there, called a spade a spade something that has been sadly wanting before.

However, given that, ALL of the so-called 'peace talks' are quixotic kabuki, idealistic but fruitless. There will never be two states there. So what good was Kerry's effort or the UN resolution? No practical good at all, but at least when the shit really hits the fan there we can say not only that we told you so but also that we tried.

Supposedly, Trump would reverse all that. He has promised a radical change in US policy, moving our embassy to Jerusalem, offering free reign to new settlement building, and putting the US at odds with the rest of the world.

The president-elect’s transition team responded that “the transition has a memorandum of understanding in place with the administration, and we continue to uphold both of our ends in this agreement.”

I'd like to see the document.

It would be interesting to see who has done what.

During the transition, Trump should be gathering his team and developing his policies not implementing them.

Trump got elected based on radical change. They were aick of Hillary and Obama.

Obama will be moving one mile to his new home in DC. He is out to do what he can to destroy the Trump presidency.

His latest cute trick is to further destabilize relations with Russia. Obama is morally indignant that the Russians may have exposed to the US public that Hillary really is the shit many of us knew her to be.

An old gray horse headed for slaughter in Mexico recently orchestrated his escape by slipping into a pack of mini donkeys being rescued by a Frisco-based nonprofit, the group's president said.

Staff members of Becky's Hope Horse Rescue were down at a "kill lot" to rescue several donkeys, which is part of their mission to save abused, neglected or abandoned livestock. Bubbles, the horse, walked right up to their trailer as they tried to load the donkeys, according to a Facebook post from the nonprofit published Dec. 16."He was intent that this was his ride out of there," the post said. "We stood there staring as this old guy with crumbled ears from frostbite waited patiently for the group of mini donkeys to catch up so he could jump on the "freedom trailer" out of there."....

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.